


Coming Out

by igottoomuchwriting



Series: Dave lives and is a mechanic [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Character Death, No Apocalypse, five just came back that has nothing to do with the story, it's not dave don't worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 13:51:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18344972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/igottoomuchwriting/pseuds/igottoomuchwriting
Summary: Big news is Klaus's live hits, and it seems everything had fallen apart at once





	Coming Out

It was a sunny day today. Klaus had the day off from weed shop that Peter was able to land him a job in and he never felt more relieved. He wasn’t used to working a nine to five job like this, but he would suffer through so that he could help Dave and Peter out with rent, groceries, or anything that they needed. Plus, he was getting really sick of Dave spending all the money on their dates.

Klaus had decided to go get groceries for the boys to kill some time before Dave got off. That was his plan. Just go out, get some food for everyone, and then head back home. Nothing in the middle.

Plans have never gone his way.

He didn’t want to risk getting in trouble for stealing a grocery store cart again, either from the store or Dave, so he carried the groceries all the way home. There were a lot of stops before he reached there. At some point, he stopped in front of a TV store. He never understood how those were still in business, but Klaus never complained when he got free news.

Until now.

He set down all of his groceries with a heavy sigh and stood up with a groan.

“Klaus,” he heard Ben snap. Klaus turned around to see Ben standing behind him, eyes wide. “Look.” 

Klaus turned to see where Ben was motioning and froze at what he saw on the screen.

_ Sir Reginald Hargreeves, father and founder of The Umbrella Academy, has passed away  _

Klaus stared at the screen in shock. He hasn’t talk to his dad in forever, not since after Ben died. He didn’t know what to feel. Should he be happy? Sad? Relieved? Scared?

“Are you...okay?” he heard Ben ask. Klaus didn’t respond. He quickly put his headphones on, grabbed his groceries, and quickly started the trek back to the apartment.

\---

Klaus was sat on the couch, unmoving. He hasn’t moved since he got home. 

If Dave was home, he would’ve been able to call Diego and ask if he heard the news. He should probably buy his own phone, but he hasn’t been able to save up enough money just yet, and Diego understood.

Klaus lost track of time and soon enough, Dave was walking in through the front door.

“Klaus? Hey sorry I’m home late, I had to wait for someone to come to the shop and sign some papers.” Klaus didn’t respond. He kept staring at the ground in front of him. Dave gave Klaus a look of concern. “Klaus?”

“Hm?”

“You good, babe?”

“Yeah! Yeah, of course!” He walk over to Dave and placed a kiss on his cheek. “Just tired. Nothing to worry about.”

“Do you want something to eat?” Dave asked, still the ever worrying boyfriend.

“I’d actually love to go to sleep,” Klaus hummed. “It’s been a long day.”’ Dave nodded in agreement.

Dave went to the bathroom to get ready for bed and Klaus climbed into bed without him. He was too tired to actually shower or do anything. He just need to go to sleep and pretend that he never heard the news of his father dying.

When Dave climbed into bed with him, Klaus pretend to already be asleep. He knew Dave would want to talk about Klaus’s emotions, but that’s the last thing that he wants to do right now.

With a heavy sigh as Dave settled in behind him, Klaus closed his eyes and try to get some sleep.

\---

_ “Klaus…” _

_ “Help us, Klaus!” _

_ “He did it, it wasn’t me!” _

_ “My daughter, please—” _

_ “Klaus, you need—” _

_ “Save us—” _

_ “Help us—!” _

_ “KLAUS!” _

Klaus jerked up with a scream. He looked around the room to see ghosts standing around him, bloody, crying, begging. 

He covered his ears and closed his eyes, curling up into a ball. He would be let out soon. His dad would come and open the door to the mausoleum, and Klaus would lie and say that he was able to banish the ghosts. Can he banish the ghosts? He doesn’t even know if that was possible, but he never bothered to try. They wouldn’t stop screaming, they kept screaming, why won’t they stop  _ screaming— _

“Klaus, hey,” he heard a voice whisper over all the noise. Klaus opened his eyes but didn’t move. “Hey, there we go. It’s okay, it was a nightmare. You’re in our room, don’t worry.”

Room? Klaus finally lifted his head enough where he could look around, but kept his ears covered. Sure enough, behind all the ghosts following him, there was a window, a dresser, the closet that he and Dave hung their clothes.

Dave? Dave was here. Finally he turned his head towards his boyfriend, who had a tired smile on his face.

“There we go. See? I’m right here.” Klaus finally let his body relax. He wasn’t in the mausoleum, he was in his bedroom. His bedroom with Dave in their apartment. His dad wasn’t here, he—

He froze again. No, his dad wasn’t here. His dad was dead. His dad was dead and he wished he could be calm with the fact that he would never have to see him again, that that part of his past was gone, but he could still  _ see  _ his dead if he ever decided to show up, and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Klaus? Babe, you gotta come back to me,” he heard Dave whisper. Klaus shook his head violently and jumped off the bed.

“I have to go,” he mumbled, pulling on his pants. 

“Go? Go where?” 

“Anywhere but here.” He grabbed a sweatshirt off of the ground but before he could run out of the room, Dave grabbed his arm.

“No, we need to talk about this.”

“There’s nothing to talk about. Just go back to sleep, I’ll be fine.”

“I’m not going back to sleep until I know you’re okay.”

“I’m great!” he yelled. “I’m fan- _ fucking- _ tastic! Never been happier!”

“Klaus!” Dave snapped. Klaus stared at him with both shock and determination. Dave never raised his voice at him, but he isn’t going to back down. “Why are you fighting so hard on this?!”

“Because it’s none of your  _ fucking business _ !” Klaus ripped his arm out from Dave’s grip and swung the door open, running down the hall. “I’m done playing pretend!”

“Playing pretend? When the fuck have you been playing pretend?” Klaus turned around to face Dave standing in the middle of the hallway.

“This!” he motioned between them. “This is all pretend! None of it  _ fucking  _ matters! It’s all just made up in our heads!”  _ Stop stop stop,  _ he thought. Nothing of what he was saying was true, but he just wanted to be  _ alone _ . 

“Are you saying…?” Dave trailed off, but Klaus could see his heart shatter. Klaus felt his do the same.

“I’m saying that I’m  _ done _ !” With that, Klaus ran out the front door, not daring to look back.

“Fine!” he heard Dave yell. “Keep all your emotions bottled up! Deal with it on your own! I’m done trying to care!”

Klaus ignored him, running down the stairs of the apartment, too wound up to take the elevator. He eventually made it onto the street and took off, not having anywhere specific in mind.

The ghosts wouldn’t  _ shut up _ , and they kept  _ screaming  _ at him for help, to talk to people who are  _ also dead _ . He found an alleyway near the apartment and curled up into a ball, covering his ears.

“ _ Shut up _ !” he yelled.

“Klaus!” he heard a voice call. Klaus shut his eyes and shook his head.

“Go away Ben.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Why won’t anybody leave me alone?!” Ben watched his brother tighten up, trying to block out all of the noise going on both inside and outside of his head. It hurt to see him like this. Sometime he and Dave would get into fights, but neither had ever left before. It just took them going to seperate rooms to calm down.

“Is this about dad?” Klaus’s head shot up with a glare.

“Not everything is about dad!” He laughed. “Maybe I finally realized that I’m done with this shit and I’m done playing pretend with Dave because I’m fucked up in the head and he won’t  _ realize  _ that!”

“Are you really playing pretend?” Ben asked, shocked. Klaus just started laughing.

“Klaus?” Another voice joined in. Klaus groaned and cursed under his breath.

If one more  _ fucking  _ person joined, he was going to—

He turned his head and was surprised to see his old dealer, Ted. Ted’s eyes lit up when he saw him.

“Klaus! Hey man!” he cheered. Klaus watched him with caution, but eventually stood up and walked over, giving his old “friend” a hug.

“Ted! It’s been forever!” He patted him on the shoulder. “How’ve you been?”

“Ah, you know,” he shrugged. “Selling drugs, getting caught, being sent to rehab. The usual. What about you?”

“Moved somewhere new.” He left it at that. He didn’t want to think about anything else.

“You okay man?” Ted asked. Klaus avoided his gaze. “You don’t look too hot.”

“I just need a hit,” he blurted out before he could think. A part of him was screaming to stop, that he’s been clean for three weeks, he’d been doing so  _ well _ , but the other, stronger part of him just didn’t care.

“I got something if you got the cash.” Luckily he grabbed the pants that had his money left over. He grabbed a twenty and handed it to Ted, who quickly exchanged it for a bag of pills. It was like he was home again.

“Thanks.”

“Not a problem.” 

They parted ways after that, deciding that they have been talking for much too long, bringing suspicion to anyone that passed. He heard Ben tell him to not do it, he’s been doing so well.

“You don’t have to do this Klaus! Just go to Diego’s and ask for help!” Klaus shook his head and turned to Ben, smile on his face. 

“This is  _ so  _ much more fun though!” He quickly swallowed two pills at once, smiling wide at Ben. Ben looked so angry, and Klaus wasn’t surprised when he disappeared. With a shrug, Klaus started making his way to the academy. He knew everyone would be gathering there soon enough.

\---

Everyone knew he was high. Obviously he was high. He just spent the whole night awake and thriving, talking to Mom about anything and everything under the sun. He ignored the looks Pogo gave him. He didn’t give two shits about what he thought.

His siblings weren’t surprised he was high. He just laughed, hugged them, went on his way. Luther gave him the disappointing frown, almost as well as Dad could. Allison and Vanya both sadly smiled, and Ben still wasn’t around.

It was Diego who reacted differently.

“Are you  _ high _ ?” Diego hissed. He had pulled Klaus to a side room so that none of their siblings would hear them talk.

“Well, I’m not low!” he said with a laugh. Diego shook his head, grip tight on his arm.

“When did you get drugs? I thought Dave cleaned them all out?”

“Dave can’t control what I do with  _ my  _ money.” Klaus looked up to the ceiling with a sigh. “Not that he’d want to, any way.”

“Klaus, what happened last night?” There was the worry. Klaus had been getting used to that over the past few months. Diego had made a habit of checking up on his brother, making sure he was happy, that he still had a job, that he was still clean. It was easy to say that he was Klaus’s favorite sibling—well, after Ben, of course.

“Dave and I had a little… disagreement.” Klaus finally slurred out. Diego sighed and rubbed his face.

“About what?”

“Oh, whether or not I was okay.”

“And are you?”

“Of course!” he cheered, throwing his hands up. The sleeves of his sweatshirt fell down his arms, stopping at his elbows. “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been! Dad’s dead, the whole family is together, and my boyfriend and I broke up!”

“You broke  _ up _ ?!” he yelled. Klaus flinched away slightly, but quickly recovered and placed a hand on Diego’s mouth.

“Shh, Diego,” he mumbled. Diego swatted his hand away, though Klaus didn't mind. “We didn’t  _ officially  _ break up, but we mostly likely are never getting back together.” He laughed and looked to the side. “Ha. I love that song.”

“Klaus, focus,” Diego snapped. “Does Dave know about Dad?”

“Now why would he?”

“Because it’s normal to tell your boyfriend that your Dad passed away.” Klaus laughed again—man, Diego was funny, wasn’t he?—and shook his head.

“Not when it’s our family! Our family stays a deep, deep secret.” Before Diego could rebut what he said, or try to talk  _ some  _ sense into him, there was a knock on the door. Diego and Klaus both looked over to see Luther standing in the doorway, hunched over so that he could fit.

“We’re going to go spread Dad’s ashes. Are you guys coming?”

“Of course!” Klaus cheered. “Wouldn’t want to miss him finally leaving!”

Klaus followed Luther out of the room, and Diego lagged behind. He double checked to make sure no one was watching before pulling out his phone to check a text he had received just as he arrived at the academy.

 

From David Katz:  _ hey have you seen klaus? we got in a fight last night and he ran off and now i don’t know where he is _

To David Katz:  _ He’s at our dad’s house.  _

From David Katz:  _ really? i thought he hated that man _

To David Katz:  _ He does. We all do. He passed away so we’re spreading his ashes _

From David Katz:  _ oh my god _

From David Katz:  _ im so sorry diego _

From David Katz:  _ are you guys okay? is klaus okay? _

To David Katz:  _ Yeah we’re okay. He relapsed but I’m not going to go into depth with that. _

From David Katz:  _ oh. ok _

To David Katz:  _ I’ll text you the address when we’re done _

 

He quickly put his phone away and rushed to join the others.

\---

It was just like old times, Klaus thought. Diego and Luther had gotten in a fight, Mom was pretending it hadn’t happened, Pogo was disappointed in them, and Allision and Vanya were 100% done with everyone.

The only thing that wasn’t normal was the fact that Five came back.

Klaus had confirmed that Five was real, and not a ghost, and they brought him inside to see what was going on. He shared stories of his travels, explaining all that happened, giving everyone a scare. Klaus was just happy that he didn’t have another brother die, that he didn’t need to spend the rest of his life with two of his brothers following him around.

As of right now, he could hardly deal with one brother.

“I told you, there’s no drugs in here,” Ben snapped.

“I heard you!” Klaus threw his pillow across the room out of frustration. “I still don’t think Diego found all of them!”

“He did!” Ben yelled. “He came in while you were in the bath, cleaned out  _ all of your drugs,  _ then left.”

“Fuck!” he hissed. He sat down on the ground and placed his head in his hands. His last hit wore off, and now everything from the past few days has been hitting him all at once. He couldn’t get him and Dave’s fight out of his head. He hated himself so  _ much _ for it. He didn’t mean the things he said to Dave, he really wanted to tell Dave everything, but he didn’t want him to leave.

He lifted his head when he heard a knock on his door where he saw Diego standing in the door.

“Hey,” he said. Klaus gave him a blank look before placing his head back in his hands.

“Go away, Diego.”

“Can you come downstairs?”

“No.” Diego sighed.

“Mom made food and she’s worried about you.” Klaus stiffened up. 

“Okay,” Klaus finally sighed. He was never close with his mom, but he knew that she cared. If he stayed up here, it wouldn’t be too soon until she came up. “Okay, I’ll come down.” Diego nodded his head and Klaus stood up to follow his brother. He saw Ben disappear out of the corner of his eye.

Klaus didn’t try to hold a conversation with Diego. He was tired and he didn’t want to use all of his energy, or start crying. If he started crying, Diego wouldn’t let him out of it.

They walked down the last flight of stairs, nothing but silence. Klaus knew everyone had gone out to deal with other things, to show Five around, help Luther figure out his whole guess on how their dad died. Klaus knew his dad wasn’t killed, but for some reason Luther couldn’t let it go.

Diego stopped at the bottom of the stairs, confusing Klaus. Klaus turned to him to ask what he was doing when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

“...Dave?” he whispered. Dave was standing there in the middle of his living room, looking around in awe. His head whipped around to Klaus and Klaus wanted to cry. 

Dave’s hair was a mess and oily, as if Dave hadn’t showered in a while. He had dark bags under his eyes and his eyes were red and puffy, signs from crying for long periods of time. He had sweatpants and a oil-stained tank top, which Klaud  _ knows  _ he never leaves the house looking like that. He could be going on a long bus ride and he will have at least jeans on.

“Klaus,” he sighed. He walked right over to Klaus with the determination of a man at war, but paused right in front of Klaus. He could see the fear in his eyes. Klaus stared at Dave in shock. He couldn’t believe that Dave was standing there, in his  _ house _ , even after everything that Klaus said to him.

With no warning, Klaus dove right into Dave, wrapping his arms around Dave’s waist and started bawling into his shoulder. He didn’t care that Diego was still in the room, he didn’t care that someone could walk in and seem him like this, hugging a man that they’ve never seen before. 

“Klaus, oh my  _ god,”  _ Dave choked. “I’m so glad your okay.”

“What are you doing here?” he sobbed. Dave started running his hands through his hair, instantly calming Klaus down.

“I asked Diego if he had seen you and he brought me here.” 

“But why are you here?” 

“What do you mean, baby?” Klaus almost didn’t ask again. He didn’t realize how much he needed to hear Dave just talk to him, but here he was, falling at the knees while sobbing into his shoulder.

“I said mean things,” he choked. “I yelled at you, and—and I hurt you and lied and screamed and—”

“Klaus, Klaus no,” he whispered. “Yes, you said mean things, but you were tired and scared and your  _ dad _ had just died.” He kissed the top of his head and pulled Klaus tighter to his body. “We can talk about it later. It’s not my priority right now.” Klaus nodded his head. He didn’t want to let go of Dave, afraid that once he did, Dave would disappear.

A thought popped into his head and he froze. He took lifted his head off of Dave’s shoulder to look him in the eyes. Dave had tears in his eyes as well, shattering Klaus’s heart.

“Do you… Do you know?” he asked. Dave gave him a confused look.

“Know what?”

“ _ Anything _ .” There was a hint of desperation in his voice. Dave came to his family home, the place that everyone in the world knows exist. It’s hard to hide the fact of who your dad is, who your family is, who you are, when you are standing and crying in the place that you grew up in.

“I think we might want to go somewhere more private,” Dave mumbled. Klaus sucked in a breath, but nodded his head.

He pulled Dave back up the stairs, not letting him stop to look at things. He knew there was a lot going on for Dave, he now had the chance to look into his boyfriend’s past that he had never seen before, but there was a reason that Klaus left the past in the past.

“It’s small,” was the first thing Dave said when they stepped into Klaus’s room. Klaus awkwardly laughed.

“Yeah, we never moved rooms growing up. Even though this place is a mansion, I had gotten stuck with one of the smallest room.” 

“It was enough room for your big personality to grow,” David commented. Klaus appreciated his attempt to lighten the mood. 

They sat on the bed together, Klaus with his back facing the head of his bed and Dave sitting on the edge. He was looking around the room and taking everything in. 

The silence was driving Klaus mad. He didn’t know where to start, and he knew Dave would want to wait until Klaus started talking. He knew Klaus had limits, and after nine months of dating, he has learned that he needs to wait until Klaus goes onto the topic. This was different, though.

“I know you’re waiting for me to talk,” Klaus mumbled. He pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around, trying to bring himself as much comfort as he could. “But I don’t know where to start. You need to ask questions to get this going.”

“Okay.” It was back to silence. Klaus picked at string that was on his bedsheet. He should probably talk to his mom about getting new bed sheets, but he figured it doesn’t matter. Everyone would be leaving again soon, and Five would be staying in his room. He doesn’t need new sheets in his bedroom.

“What is your power?” he hesitantly asked. Out of all of the questions, that was the one questions Klaus was hoping he wouldn’t ask. Even though people know he is from the Umbrella Academy, they still give him weird look and think he is crazy when he tells people their power. Hell, even his siblings won’t believe his power.

Without making eye contact, he replied, “I can see the dead.”

“The  _ dead _ ?” Dave gasped. “Like, ghosts?”

“Yep. All the ghosts in all of the world in all of their loud, bloody selves.” Klaus looked over to the side of the room where Ben would usually sit when it was just them. He donned a sad smile. “I can even see my brother. He follows me around, but no one believes me.”

“Why don’t they believe you? If they already know you’re a medium, why is that so unbelievable?”

“Honestly,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know. My siblings knew that it was something I struggled with, but as soon as I started seeing Ben after he passed, that’s when they thought I was crazy.”

“Why did you hide this from me?” Dave moved on. Klaus wouldn’t be surprised if he was mentally storing away some of the information for future conversations. Klaus could imagine Dave scolding his siblings for not listening or caring about Klaus. Well, except for Diego.

“It was a part of me I didn’t want to face.” He pulled his legs closer to his chest and squeezed tight, dead look in his eyes. “My dad would lock me in a mausoleum for hours, sometimes days at a time so that I would learn to control my powers. It never worked, it just made the ghosts angry that I was sitting in their place of rest, not doing anything to help them.” 

Klaus covered his ears just slightly, feeling as if ghosts were going to start screaming at him as he spoke these words. “That was the start of my drug addiction. It was the only thing that would be able to make them shut up, for me to actually be at peace. No one understood why I did it, and they never cared that I was going out every night to get high. Only Ben did.” Klaus let out another laugh, though this one was more broken. “Once Ben died, there was no reason for me to stay with people that could give less of a shit if I overdosed on the side of the road. So I left.”

“With a past that fucked up, and being able to see ghosts, I decided that wasn’t something I wanted you to see. I was afraid that if you did, you would leave me.” Klaus didn’t say out loud that Dave was the best thing that has happened. He didn’t say that if he lost Dave, he really would have no reason to care anymore, and would just go back to his old lifestyle. Being with Dave gave him a reason to care about himself, care about other people, and a reason to actually stay in touch with his siblings.

“I’m glad your dad is already dead,” Klaus heard Dave laugh. It was a dry laugh, one that Klaus knew Dave was either on the verge of tears, or getting close to there. “Or else I would kill him, and I have plenty of buddies that would help me find the body.”

“I don’t think my mom and Pogo would be too happy that you did that. Or my dad.” He groaned and put his head between his knees. “If you had done that, he would probably haunt me and then I could never get rid of the old shit!”

“You know I wouldn’t leave you because of that, right?” Dave asked. Klaus looked up at his boyfriend but said nothing. “This is something you can’t control. I know what the Umbrella Academy is, I know that there are six of them—”

“Seven.”

“—Seven of them. I wouldn’t be freaked out that you can see ghosts.”

“Even on top of the fact that I was a drug addict, never held a job, didn’t have a phone, and was homeless for all of my adult life.”

“Klaus…” he mumbled. Klaus hadn’t told him he had been homeless. That was another thing he had planned on hiding it for as long as he and Dave were together, but over course he let his big mouth slip.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he snapped. “Next question.” Dave stared at the man in front of him, thinking. There were a million questions that must being rushing through his head. Klaus has hid so much from the man, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Dave had left him because of it.

“Did you...Did you mean those things? That you said when you left?”

“ _ No. _ ” Klaus ran his hands through his hair, shaking his head. “No, of course not. I-I was scared. I had just found out my dad died, the ghosts weren’t leaving me along, I had woken you up with nightmares for the fifth time in a  _ row _ that week. I was angry at myself, angry at the world, angry at my dad and what he did to me—”

“Hey, hey, Klaus.” Klaus snapped his head up. Dave had moved closer and there was a sad and worried look in his eyes. He had his hand outstretched as if he was going to touch him, but thought better of it. Klaus took a shaky breath.

“I’m sorry. I’m  _ so sorry _ .” Klaus finally started crying again. Dave grabbed his hand and pulled him forward into a hug. Klaus hugged him tight, never wanting to let go.

“It’s okay. I understand, it’s okay,” he hushed, running his hands through his hair while rubbing Klaus’s back.

They sat like that for who knows how long. Klaus was upset at himself for hurting the one he loves, and so afraid that he was going to lose him because of one decision he made.

“One more question,” Dave murmured. Klaus wanted to say no, he doesn’t want to answer more questions, but he thought that he owed Dave this much, so he nodded his head. “Out of all the shirts on the ground, why did you grab my sweatshirt?”

Klaus froze. He pulled back enough where he wouldn’t be too far from Dave, forehead still pressed against his shoulder, but enough that he could see what he was wearing.

Sure enough, Klaus had grabbed Dave’s college sweatshirt from senior year. He and Dave were really close in size, and Dave had said that the sweatshirt shrunk on him just a bit, so it makes sense that Klaus didn’t realize what he had grabbed.

“Oh,” was all he said. Dave laughed and pulled him back to his chest, placing a kiss on top of his head.

“It’s alright, love. I’m glad that you grabbed it.” Klaus hummed in response. 

Eventually Dave had laid the couple down on their sides so that they could get some proper sleep. Usually Klaus would fight it, wanting to stay away from his mind as much as possible, but he was exhausted. He knew there was more that he and Dave needed to talk about, but right now, he just wanted to live in this moment.

**Author's Note:**

> @ the person who wanted Dave to find out and Peter and Ben to be friends: soon. Maybe.  
> I have no idea what to say about this except I'm sorry about the ending? I was tired and spent the night before crying and had no coffee and just didn't want to write anymore  
> Oversharing??? Probably
> 
> Come see me on Tumblr!: igottoomuchwriting


End file.
